It's been a long wait for "Batman: Caped Crusader" in more than one way. Not only is this the first Batman animated series since the now nearly obscure "Beware the Batman" from 2012, but "Caped Crusdaer" was announced back in 2021 and was nearly cancelled before it even began. There was a lot of hype behind "Caped Crusader" with how many past Batman creators were involved in the project. This includes Bruce Timm of "Batman: The Animated Series" (BTAS) fame, "The Batman" director Matt Reeves, and past Batman comic writers Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka. With season one's release, the wait was well worth it.
While some aspects of the series are meant to give it a timeless feel like BTAS, "Caped Crusader" leans heavily on a golden age and 1940's aesthetic. It reminds me a bit of how Earth-2 was portrayed in the Arrowverse, being modern but having those classic influences (which works for this series since the golden age DC comics were retconned to take place on Earth-2). Meant to homage the noir and detective elements of the original Batman comics, "Caped Crusader" is darker and much more mature than previous Batman animated series, with coarse language and on-screen deaths. Following up from BTAS and its successors, it's kind of like how Dennis O'Neil and Frank Miller's comics brought the Dark Knight back to his roots. And being on a streaming platform like Amazon also allows Bruce Timm to break free from the constraints of network Saturday morning standards, similar to what "X-Men '97" was able to accomplish.
Besides Timm's art style, Matt Reeves' influence seemed strongest to me. Besides a more grounded nature like his 2022 film, it's also present in the depiction of Bruce Wayne/Batman (voiced by Hamish Linklater, who leads an overall stellar cast). Behind closed doors, he's young, withdrawn, and as full of anger as Pattinson's depiction. The two versions appear to have similar character arcs, with the only difference is "Caped Crusader" Bruce is further along with his socialite facade nailed down. While most of the series focuses on the underbelly and corrupted system of Gotham in the early days of Bruce's crusade, these character moments are a real highlight to me.
The series follows a traditional "Villain of the Day" format but has overarching plotlines that culminate in a two-part season finale featuring Two-Face. On that topic, Harvey's scars are depicted more realistically but not to the extreme of something like "The Dark Knight", though his vigilante crusade carries over from that; plus, his story has better closure than what he got in the DCAU in my opinion. While Catwoman and Clayface are mostly influenced by their golden age appearances, many villains who appeared much later in comics are reinterpreted to fit that era here, including Nocturna, Firebug, and Onomatopoeia (the latter two really only being hired guns in the larger narrative). This series' version of Harley Quinn has been quite a point of contention among fans as they really flipped the script on her character, but I thought it was done well. One villain I felt was out of place was Gentleman Ghost; his episode wasn't bad, but keeping him a supernatural character just feels off in such a grounded show. Perhaps the most major change to a major villain in the show was making Penguin female in Oswalda Cobblepot. I usually don't have a problem with gender swapping a character and she's just as villainous as her male counterpart, but this circumstance just felt lazy (seriously, they just added an "a" to the end of the name). If anything, I found it funny how she has two sons clearly inspired by Trump's oldest.
Surprisingly, we get some Robins in the show. In the Nocturna episode, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown, and Carrie Kelley are residents at an orphanage run by Leslie Thompkins. I'm not sure if we will get an in-costume Robin at some point in the show, but by process of elimination, Tim Drake will be the logical choice when the time comes.
While it doesn't reach the heights of Timm's work on "The Animated Series", "Batman: Caped Crusader" should offer fans of the mythos a take that's familiar while putting its own spin on things.
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